(1)(a) Subject to the provisions of Chapter 70, article 6, and subject to the approval of the Nebraska Power Review Board, the board of directors of a district, other than a district with a service area containing a city of the metropolitan class, may amend the petition for its creation to provide for the division of the territory of such district into two or more subdivisions for the nomination and election of some or all of the directors. Each subdivision shall be composed of one or more voting precincts, or divided voting precincts, and the total population of each such subdivision shall be approximately the same. Except in districts which contain a city of the metropolitan class, two or more subdivisions may be combined for election purposes, and members of the board of directors to be elected from such combined subdivisions may be nominated and elected at large when not less than seventy-five percent of the population of the combined subdivisions is within the corporate limits of any city.

(b) In the event a district formed includes all or part of two or more counties and is (i) engaged in furnishing electric light and power and more than fifty percent of its customers are rural customers or (ii) engaged in furnishing electric light and power and in the business of owning and operating irrigation works, then and in that event such subdivisions may be formed by following precinct or county boundary lines without regard to population if in the judgment of the Nebraska Power Review Board the interests of the rural users of electricity or of users of irrigation water service in such district will not be prejudiced thereby.

(2)(a) The board of directors of a district with a service area containing a city of the metropolitan class may amend its charter to provide for the division of the territory of the district into election subdivisions composed of substantially equal population and compact and contiguous territory and number the subdivisions consecutively and submit the maps to the Nebraska Power Review Board.

(b) If the board of directors provides for eight election subdivisions prior to January 1, 2014, the board of directors shall assign each position on the board of directors to represent a numbered election subdivision for the remainder of the term of office for which the member is elected, regardless of whether the member resides in the subdivision, and shall make such assignments so that the terms of members representing election subdivisions numbered one, two, and three expire in January 2015, the terms of members representing election subdivisions numbered four and five expire in January 2017, and the terms of members representing election subdivisions six, seven, and eight expire in January 2019. If possible, each member shall be assigned to represent an election subdivision that corresponds to the end of the term he or she is serving.

(c) A successor who resides in the numbered election subdivision shall be nominated and elected at the statewide primary and general elections held in the calendar year prior to the expiration of the term of the member who represents such numbered election subdivision.

(3) After each federal decennial census, the board of directors of a district with a service area containing a city of the metropolitan class shall create new boundaries for the election subdivisions. In establishing the boundaries of the election subdivisions, the board of directors shall follow county lines wherever practicable, shall provide for the subdivisions to be composed of substantially equal population and compact and contiguous territory, and shall, as nearly as possible, follow the precinct lines created by the election commissioner or county clerk after each federal decennial census.

(4) Any public power district or public power and irrigation district owning and operating irrigation works may, with approval of the Nebraska Power Review Board, add representation on its board of directors from any county which is outside its chartered territory but in which is located some or all of such irrigation works.